Jonathan Moeller's Blog, page 255
May 2, 2016
CLOAK GAMES: SHADOW JUMP progress update
A short excerpt:
He glanced at me. “Thanks. That was some good shooting.”
“Considering I just blasted a hole in your roof, I’m glad you think so,” I said.
-JM
April 29, 2016
reader questions – GHOST IN THE PACT, GHOST IN THE WINDS, and FROSTBORN #11
We’re about a third of the way through 2016, and I’ve published three books – FROSTBORN: THE HIGH LORDS, MASK OF DRAGONS, and GHOST IN THE PACT. So it seems like a good time to answer some common reader questions about what I plan to write next.
First, thanks for reading! There are a billion different ways to amuse yourself, so I’m grateful that reading my books is one the ways you’ve chosen to spend your hard-earned dollars and hours (especially when there are never enough of either). Now onto the questions!
Q: When will the 11th Frostborn book, FROSTBORN: THE FALSE KING, come out?
A: I suspect July. I’m going to start writing it in a few weeks once CLOAK GAMES: SHADOW JUMP is done.
Q: How many Frostborn books will there be? I read FROSTBORN OMNIBUS ONE and liked it, but I am apprehensive about starting another long series.
A: There will be fifteen total. No one ever believes me when I say this. 
Nevertheless, there will be fifteen books, and I hope to conclude the FROSTBORN series in 2017 barring health problems and unexpected Real Life difficulties and such.
Also – I don’t mind this question at all. I totally get it. Several writers of long-running series seem more interested in the internal politics of the SF/F traditional publishing world than in actually finishing their long-running series (which is kind of sad, because traditional publishing is as obsolete as the titles of feudal nobility – it’s like watching impoverished geriatrics argue over who has the proper claim to be the 29th Earl of Castle Nowherehamshireville). So I completely understand why readers have apprehension about starting an unfinished long series, given the many, many, many precedents of failure.
Additionally, I really don’t like cliffhangers, either, since it’s asking the reader to take a total trust fall, and I’ve only done them a few times, and only when I thought it was the best choice for the story.
But! I fully intend and plan to finish the FROSTBORN series in 2017.
Q: When will GHOST IN THE WINDS come out?
A: September or October. That will be my next project after FROSTBORN: THE FALSE KING.
Q: How many GHOST EXILE books will there be?
A: Nine.
Q: Does that mean GHOST IN THE WINDS is the last GHOST EXILE book?!?
A: Yes. But! It won’t be the last GHOSTS book.
Q: So what will the book after GHOST IN THE WINDS be called?
A: Spoilers.
Q: Then what are you working on right now?
A: CLOAK GAMES: SHADOW JUMP, and I hope to have it out in May or June.
Q: When will MASK OF SPELLS come out?
A: Right after FROSTBORN: THE FALSE KING. One of the more valuable tricks I learned in 2015 is how to work on two books at once, and so I’ll start MASK OF SPELLS at the same time as FROSTBORN: THE FALSE KING. Like, I wrote the first 18,000 words of CLOAK GAMES: SHADOW JUMP while I was writing GHOST IN THE PACT, which is a huge boost when I started to work on SHADOW JUMP in earnest.
Q: Is MASK OF SPELLS the final book of the MASK OF THE DEMONSOULED trilogy?
A: Yes.
Q: Will your write more DEMONSOULED (or possibly THE THIRD SOUL) books after MASK OF SPELLS?
Maybe. I haven’t decided what I’m going to do when FROSTBORN is done, but I think I’m only going to do FROSTBORN, GHOSTS, and CLOAK GAMES until FROSTBORN is done in 2017. I think that should be enough to keep me busy.
-JM
April 27, 2016
GHOST IN THE PACT now available!
Available at Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Canada, Amazon Germany, Amazon Australia, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, iTunes, and Smashwords.
Click here to read the first chapter.
Caina Amalas has found the lost relics of Iramis, but with the relics comes deadly peril.
For Grand Master Callatas is ready to work his terrible Apotheosis, and all he needs to unleash the dark power of the nagataaru is the Staff and the Seal of Iramis…once he takes them from Caina’s dead hands.
Yet if Caina and Callatas do not work together, they are doomed.
For the last of the fearsome Great Necromancers, Kharnaces the Heretic, laid his sinister trap long ago, and its jaws now close around his former pupil Callatas. Unless the mighty sorcery of Kharnaces is defeated, he will unmake the world in his dark designs.
Starting with Caina and Callatas…
April 26, 2016
Ubuntu 16.04 Xenial Xerus and GHOST IN THE PACT
Downloading the new version of Ubuntu today – Ubuntu 16.04 Xenial Xerus.
This is how dedicated I was to finishing GHOST IN THE PACT – a new version of Ubuntu came out on 4/21, and for the first time in ten years, I did not download the new version of Ubuntu on the day it came out.
-JM
April 25, 2016
DEMONSOULED OMNIBUS ONE is #1
DEMONSOULED OMNIBUS ONE is #1 in its category on Amazon US. Thanks everyone!
It’s quite satisfying to see it there. I remember writing SOUL OF TYRANTS back in 2006, and finally concluding that I had wasted the time I had spent writing the book because I would be unable to sell it.
Truly, no one can see the future.
-JM
April 22, 2016
table of contents for GHOST IN THE PACT
Almost done with GHOST IN THE PACT – I think I will be able to finish the last of the work on the book this weekend, if all goes well.
Meanwhile, here’s the Table of Contents:
-JM
April 21, 2016
fifteen years of DEMONSOULED
It’s been five years since I started self-publishing, and it’s also been fifteen years since I first started working on the DEMONSOULED series.
Man. Fifteen years! To put that into historical context, I wrote DEMONSOULED on a Windows 98 computer running Word 97, and I kept my backup copies on a floppy disk.
Anyway, to celebrate fifteen years, DEMONSOULED OMNIBUS ONE is temporarily on sale for $0.99 USD (or local equivalent).
Links below!
Cover design by Clarissa Yeo.
Available at Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, Amazon Canada, Amazon Australia, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, iBooks, Google Play, and Smashwords.
Combined for the first time in one volume, here are the first three books of the internationally bestselling DEMONSOULED series – DEMONSOULED, SOUL OF TYRANTS, and SOUL OF SERPENTS.
Banished for fifteen years, the wandering knight Mazael Cravenlock returns home at last to the Grim Marches, only to find war and chaos. His brother plans a foolish and doomed rebellion. His sister hopes to wed a brutal and cruel knight. The whispers speak of living corpses that stalk the night, of demons that lurk in darkness, and a sinister snake-cult that waits in the shadows.
Yet Mazael’s darkest enemy waits elsewhere.
Within his own tainted soul.
And with the dark magic of his blood, he can either save the world…or destroy it.
-JM
April 19, 2016
GHOST IN THE PACT update & GHOST MIMIC cover image
I’ve been making good progress on GHOST IN THE PACT, and if all goes well looks like it will be out in the first week of May.
Meanwhile, here is the cover image for GHOST MIMIC, the short story I’ll give away for free to newsletter subscribers when GHOST IN THE PACT comes out!
-JM
April 17, 2016
5 years of self-publishing
As of April, I’ve now been self-publishing for five years now.
First, thank you all for reading! I spent years writing without an audience, so it is very gratifying to get emails asking when the next book is coming. So thanks for coming along on the adventures of Mazael, Caina, Ridmark, Nadia, Rachaelis, and all the others – knowing that people await the next book is a good spur towards excellence!
Man. Five years. Tempus fugit! Considering my original plan was to self-publish DEMONSOULED and SOUL OF TYRANTS and then forget about them, self-publishing worked out really well.
In the last five years, I’ve written 7 DEMONSOULED novels, 14 GHOSTS novels, 11 FROSTBORN novels, 3 CLOAK GAMES novels, 9 nonfiction books, and dozens of short stories. I thought I was done with fiction in 2010, but clearly that was not to be.
Stay tuned – I have some sales scheduled to celebrate the 5 year mark, and I’ll give away some stories for free to my newsletter subscribers later this week. Of course, this would be an excellent time to subscribe to my new-release newsletter.
-JM
April 15, 2016
more CLOAK GAMES books?
Bret asks:
“You didn’t mention writing more Cloak Games books. Have you given up on that series?”
Nope! I’m 11,000 words into CLOAK GAMES: SHADOW JUMP and it will come out sometime after GHOST IN THE PACT. So, May/June or thereabouts.
Actually, I can share a little bit of what will happen in that book.
Way back in 2003 I watched THE MATRIX RELOADED when it came out. In terms of storytelling, it was only so/so, but it did have some amazing set pieces and fight scenes, especially the extended freeway chase.
Ever since I saw that, I’ve wanted to write a chase scene that takes place on a crowded freeway, and 13 years later I have the chance with CLOAK GAMES: SHADOW JUMP.
-JM
